Cooks, Fast Food in Arkansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$23,859
after federal, FICA and Arkansas tax
Tax takes
$3,851
13.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$27,580
Arkansas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arkansas — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$27,710
Kept after tax
$23,859
Worth in national money
$27,580
State rank
42
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Arkansas pays cooks, fast food a middle wage of $27,710, 42 of 51 states and about 10.29% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Arkansas this is lower-paid work. Of 489 occupations the state publishes figures for, cooks, fast food ranks 474. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $27,710 you keep $23,859 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $27,580 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $27,770, since top earners drag the number up.
- Arkansas's $27,710 median for cooks, fast food places it 42 of 51 states, about 10.29% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Arkansas reports, cooks, fast food ranks 474 of 489, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in Arkansas is $23,859 after the full tax stack, from $27,710. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $27,580 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $27,770 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Cooks, Fast Food
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $23,770 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $27,710 |
| Top tenth earn over | $32,720 |
| This salary | $27,710 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Arkansas | $23,859 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $24,429 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,441 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $27,018 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,932 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of cooks, fast food in Arkansas earn under $27,710 and half over. The published range runs $23,770 at the tenth percentile to $32,720 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Arkansas's $23,859, worked from $27,710. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 474 of 489.
- Two cautions on $27,580, the adjusted value of that $27,710 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Arkansas. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 474 of 489 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for cooks, fast food in Arkansas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $23,770 to $32,720; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- The Arkansas take-home of $23,859, on $27,710 for work ranking 474 of 489 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 474 of 489 in the state.
- This $27,580 adjusted figure, worked from $27,710, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 474 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 474 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $23,770 at the bottom tenth to $32,720 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $27,580.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Arkansas adds its own income tax on top — which is why $23,859 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($23,770 to $32,720) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arkansas rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Arkansas's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $27,580 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $23,859 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arkansas income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.